Tethys: Design Review 4 Team members: Lowell Wilkinson, Khalifah - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Tethys:

Design Review 4

Team members:

Lowell Wilkinson, Khalifah Khalifah, James Belen

Presenter: Khalifah Khalifah

A Short Project Refresher

• Our client, Dr. Kimberly Samuels-Crow, is

studying the process of water moving through the atmosphere.

• She has an instrument that makes real-time

measurements of the isotopic composition of water vapor to accomplish her research.

• Our project is to design and install an

automated valve for her instrument that will allow her to remotely control and analyze her readings.

Presenter: Khalifah Khalifah

Project Motivation

• Our client intends to take measurements at

different elevations within a certain ecosystem.

• She uses her measurements to categorize

whether the vapor entered the atmosphere via evaporation or transpiration.

• Different measurements require manual

adjustment of what is being passed into the inlet of her instrument.

• Our client needs us to automate this manual

adjustment to improve her efficiency in the field. Presenter: Khalifah Khalifah

Project Approach

• To understand our

constraints, we spoke with

• ur client and established a

list of requirements.

• We also brainstormed as a

team to generate further contributions.

• To the right, you can see

most of our requirements for this project.

Presenter: Lowell Wilkinson

• GUI remote
• Automated – can read a text file for settings off a

SD card or similar

• Power from marine DC batteries
• Switch between three or more gas / tube sources
• Record exactly when the switch happens
• Characterize what the switch looks like, and how

long the instrument memory is

• Characterize minimum signal duration for noise

free measurements

• MATLAB functions for data cutting
• Manual override
• Weatherproof
• Quick set up
• Remotely updatable settings for timing
• DIY instructions for the isotope community – must

utilize a high number of “off the shelf ” components (ie: Arduino, Teensy, or Rasp. Pi)

Subsystem Breakdown

• We broke our project down into three subsystems. These

were easy to decide as there were three clear sections to be completed in this project.

• There is an electronic valve subsystem that is comprised of

the electronic valve, the relay, and the microcontroller. Lowell took responsibility for this system.

• There is a communication system that included a remote

desktop application on our client’s instrument as well as the Arduino IDE that ran our control program. This was under James’s responsibility.

• There is also a power subsystem that included a generator, a

fuel tank, and a UPS. Khalifah took responsibility for that system. Presenter: James Belen

Prototypes

Early on, we were not able to prototype very efficiently. We did not have our electronic valve shipped to us yet so we could not set up the electronic valve subsystem

• prototype. We did not have a generator either, so no power

subsystem prototype either. However, we were able to prototype the Arduino control circuit and the communication system. We set up a remote desktop using two computers to prototype the Arduino controller, which was successful, but that didn’t help us make much progress. Once our parts came in, we went straight into production

• f the final product.

Presenter: James Belen

Electronic Valve Subsystem

Presenter: Lowell Wilkinson

• This subsystem was completed

successfully.

• The valve immediately changes

to the client’s desired position when ordered to.

• Our client needed only to

compile the supplied Arduino code and attach the valve to her instrument to be ready for field tests.

Commmunication Subsystem

• This was the one of the two

subsystems we were able to prototype

• The device communication is

also the first subsystem to be fully complete

• Client’s analyzer instrument

acts as a desktop to provide valve control and real-time

• utput
• An external Wi-Fi adapter

was required for wireless communication

Presenter: James Belen

Subsystem #3:

Power System

Presenter: Khalifah Khalifah

Challenges

• Our first Challenge was when our original electronic valve

was swapped for another valve with a different power supply.

• Our second challenge involved a miscommunication in

purchasing supplies which delayed us two weeks.

• Another challenge was securing an on-campus workspace.
• Another challenge was using the gas generator.
• The last challenge was our rushed construction and delivery of
• ur product to our client.

Presenter: Khalifah Khalifah

Final Product

This is the only video that we have of our project. Due to the virus, we are unable to get a better representation for this presentation. However, the final product was delivered to our client. Presenter: Lowell Wilkinson

Future Work

Future work may include the following: Manual Override Straps to secure instruments Updated UI Wireless field connection More inlets for the valve

Presenter: Lowell Wilkinson

Conclusion

Presenter: Khalifah Khalifah

• Design, create, and implement an automatic real-time instrument to aid the

measurement and analysis of water vapor

• The automatic valve system must be able to switch between inlets of different

elevations, contain self-generating power source, a user interface and communication system that can allow remote control of the instrument

• Power System will power all components of the instrument and auxiliary

accessories

• communication system will be responsible for displaying analyzer output as well as

provide remote control for the electronic valve

• We achieved our client requirements and we delivered our product to the client